Public Opinion and American DemocracyThis course examines public opinion in the American political system. We will discuss how to measure public opinion, how citizens formulate opinions, and the role of public opinion in campaigns, elections, and policymaking. The course will also investigate public opinion on a wide variety of topics, from immigration to abortion, as well as consider normative questions, including the role opinion should play in American democracy. The course also satisfies Penn’s Quantitative Data Analysis (QDA) requirement. Toward that end, students will learn how to analyze survey data in order to answer substantive questions about American public opinion. Syllabus available here.

Religion and PoliticsReligion and politics are deeply intertwined in contemporary America, as evidenced by heated and often highly partisan debates over gay marriage, abortion, and the place of religion in public life. This course addresses the ways in which religion and politics intersect in the United States, including the extent to which individuals’ religious beliefs affect their political attitudes and behaviors; how politicians use religion to their electoral advantage; the changing relationship between religion and partisanship; the rise of the so-called "Religious Right"; and the role of churches in political mobilization. In addition, this course will focus on understanding and evaluating social science theories regarding the influence of religion and politics in the United States. In doing so, the course will explore how scholars operationalize religious concepts and use data to make empirical claims about the relationship between religion and politics. Syllabus available here.

​Political PsychologyHow do campaign advertisements influence voters’ perceptions and behavior? What roles do emotions play in politics? Do we all harbor some measure of racism, sexism, or homophobia, and what role do these stereotypes play in political behavior? How and why do ideologies form, and how does partisanship influence the way that voters understand the political world? How do people perceive threat, and what are the psychological consequences of terrorism?

These questions, and many others, are the province of political psychology, an interdisciplinary field that uses experimental methods and theoretical ideas from psychology as tools to examine the world of politics. In this course, we will explore the role of human thought, emotion, and behavior in politics and examine the psychological origins of citizens’ political beliefs and actions from a variety of perspectives. Most of the readings emphasize politics in the United States, though the field itself speaks to every aspect of political science. Syllabus available here.

The Struggle for America's Soul: Evangelical Christians in American PoliticsIn 1992, Pat Buchanan famously said, “There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America." Battles that make up this so-called war have been fought over gay marriage, abortion, Hobby Lobby, and political correctness, to name just a few, and white evangelical Christians have often been on the front lines of these cultural clashes. And the era of Trump has further ignited new religious debates, not about policy, but about evangelicals themselves. Trump critics question the moral fiber of a group who enthusiastically support a president whose personal behaviors and words often seem antithetical to Christian values, while Trump supporters cheer on a leader who fights for Christian values in the political arena.

​This seminar will start to unpack evangelicals’ role in American politics by exploring who evangelicals are, what evangelicals believe, whether and how evangelicals apply their religious beliefs to politics, the rise (and fall) of the “Religious Right”, and how politicians use religion to their electoral advantage. In doing so, this course will also encourage students to think about whether and how religion should be incorporated into politics and how students’ own religious beliefs (or non-beliefs) influence their political outlooks. The course fulfills the Cultural Diversity in the U.S. foundational approach.